Beside the change

Apart from our work in the workshop, we had time to see the town, and participate in the openings of the “coexistence” and “masterpieces” exhibitions. The first one was something of an epic belly-flop, but the masters for the most enarned deserved the title for their socio-political posters. There were many classic ones on display, several very impressive in size and technique. Particularly the large screenprints were nice. Since I don’t have the exhibition catalogue with me now, I might be writing more on them sometime in the future.

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Ljubljana tourism imagery follows:

Interesting calligraphy and a stylish frog character, decorating the walls of a restaurant. The first letter is a special variant on ž.

Pidgeon house.

Post-modern buildings of a characteristic style, of which several examples can be found around Ljubljana. I don’t know the architect though.

A little parking hall.

A part of Team Finland posing in front of the self-same parking hall.

Postmodernism Lives.

Ljubljana’s famed modular kiosks. This one was, like many, filled with porn.

A guard- and surveillance company logo.

Another guard company. The mountains are taken from Slovenia’s coat of arms.

A third guard company.

The bank and the All-seeing Eye.

The eye could be seen in many places around town.

A former bar called Muca, cat in slovenian.

A city view from the castle hill, that looms over the centre of Ljubljana. The city lies on a plain, surrounded by the foothills of the Alps.

In the distance, a colorful factory for making sunshine and joy.

A surprising theme turned out to be graffiti culture, on which I got a whole new perspective by some masters of that field. The world’s most widely practiced form of visual art can be thought of as a tradition-conscious modern folk art, ideologically related to calligraphy and with it’s own subcultures and particular modes of evaluation. This even led to an unexpected tribute, skillfully rendered in the 70’s New York style.

Finally, a big thank you to everyone who met for the workshop in Ljubljana. It was memorable.

After Ljubljana, it was time to head back to Antwerpen, but not without a detour through Venice, that sinking city. Somehow that seemed a fitting destination to the theme of climate change.